1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a method for manufacturing cyano compounds which are useful as intermediates for medicines and agricultural chemicals. Furthermore, the cyano compounds are easily converted to carboxylic acid derivatives which are usable for chemical intermediates such as building blocks of many compounds.
2. Description of the Related Art
At present, many methods of synthesizing cyano compounds have been reported, such as organic syntheses or enzymatic methods. There are many catalytic methods using a cyanide ion as a cyanation reagent, though a catalytic method using a cyanomethyl compound as a cyanomethylation reagent which is reacted with aldehydes and ketones is also known. Examples of the catalytic cyanomethylation reaction are those using trimethylsilylacetonitrile (TMSCH2CN) as a nucleophile (Palomo et al; J. Chem. Soc. Perkin Trans I 1989, 1692), and direct addition of acetonitrile to aldehydes and ketones using proazaphosphatranes as a base catalyst in the presence of magnesium sulfate (Kisanga et al; J. Org. Chem. 1999, 64, 3090).